


The White Man's Burden

by fujiidom



Series: Stacks On Stacks On Stacks [1]
Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Bad Fic, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-18
Updated: 2014-01-18
Packaged: 2018-01-09 02:56:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1140612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fujiidom/pseuds/fujiidom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No matter what line of work he chooses, Will McAvoy will always find a way to shape the minds of America.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The White Man's Burden

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hellolamppost17](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellolamppost17/gifts).



> Happy birthday, [Kacey](http://www.archiveofourown.org/users/hellolamppost17)! Hopefully these don't make your eyes bleed. I know these aren't exactly non-terrible but hopefully they'll bring some joy to you, today!

If it were up to Will, the Civil Mission would carry only books written prior to 1960. Or at least that’s how it seems to Don. 

Look, it’s not like he’s unaware that he’s an asshole. To truly embrace the calling, one has to realize their personal greatness and grow into the role. You don’t crush dreams and corrupt innocents overnight.

McAvoy opened this shop half a decade ago, but you wouldn’t know it. It’s only after they brought the British chick to take over the front end that anyone would even step into the small bookstore.

There’s a rumor, no doubt started by one of the ridiculously overstaffed bookstore’s minions, that Will was charging for memberships to join at one point. As a way of selecting only the best of the best to …what? Read his books? Smoke cigars and celebrate white manhood?

There’s no staffer on the payroll right now that would even qualify whom Will would bother to spend two minutes with besides himself. Maybe Will’s mysterious benefactor, Charlie, who shows up once a month with a bottle of scotch and some horror story about the government trampling personal freedoms; last month it was some guy got accosted when trying to buy liquor so he went home and started his own brewery. 

What an inspiration.

It’s no doubt that being a white guy is why Will liked him in the first place, but to be fair, that only gets him so far. Look at how much he hates Jim. Will likes Don because for the first time in ten years he offered a cigar to someone and not only did they accept, but they were able to smoke it without gagging.

Apparently that’s the depth of Will McAvoy’s interest in someone. Whether they agree with him on Israel or the amount of Hemingway they’ve read, it helps, but at the end of the day, he just wants someone to listen. 

Don’s been in charge of marketing the store and getting people to find the old leather bound books and well-worn chairs vibe to not be off-putting. It’s not like he’s in charge of financials like Sloan, worrying about keeping this place from going under would probably have him contemplating eating a bullet before the end of the month, but she’s a pro. 

A real good-looking pro.

His job was instead to make sure that Sloan didn’t kill herself trying to keep the books afloat while McAvoy expenses another bottle of whisky and poster print of the Constitution. It’s only a hole in the wall, but with Williamsburg only a couple dozen subway stops away and the influx of wannabe intellectuals trying to act like they fit in here, the type with unused humidors and a theoretical subscription to the New Yorker. It’s fish in a barrel, basically, considering how hard it usually is to keep any bookstore from being eaten up by the Barnes & Nobles of the world.

There are days where he feels like his calling might have been for something more. The times he reads The Greatest Generation again because it’s one of, like, five books on the McAvoy’s Mentionables list all year long, he thinks extra-long about his life.

Thing is, yes, there’s no doubt that past generations kicked ass at stuff because they had to, but it’s not an excuse to dwell in the past. His life, his choices, they’re all he has. If he focuses on what could have been, he’ll be like Will, stuck pining over their general manager while sipping overpriced Macallan by the glass. 

Given the option, he’ll take his current decision to embrace the wide world of reading and take Sloan on another commiserative drink. There are far worse lives he could wake up living.


End file.
